“It’s a massive success for gardai who thwarted one of the Hutch gang’s main enforcers being taken out. “There is no doubt about it that these four men meant business and would have taken him out no problem had officers not intervened.

A fully loaded Boretta 9mm pistol and silencer were seized in the north inner city close to where the hit was allegedly set to be carried.

Meanwhile, armed officers from the Emergency Response Unit stopped a car on Philipsburgh Avenue in Fairview and arrested two men at around 8pm on Monday night.

The two other men were arrested on the southside of the city.

A total of ten searches were carried out following the incident and up to seven vehicles involved in the attempted hit have been recovered and are undergoing analysis.

Gardai also anticipate more arrests will be made. At a press conference yesterday Assistant Commissioner John O’Driscoll said: “It is one of the most elaborate exercises of that nature we have seen.

“We allege that a person’s life was in immediate danger, which is evident by the fact that a number of the people we are making allegations against were in close proximity to a loaded weapon with a silencer and accompanied by ammunition.

“And that we will allege there was an elaborate enterprise involving getaway vehicles, there was a plan to destroy those vehicles and immediately flee the scene without being caught.”

Assistant Commissioner O’Driscoll added that they are aware of who the planned hit was for and are working very hard to stamp out organised crime.

He added: “We are very sure of who the threat was against. We believe the hit was to be carried out very soon where the weapon was found.”

“We are continuing to use unrelenting activity on our part to tackle organised crime.

Gardai have spent a number of months focusing on this potential hit and say it was one of the most significant operations of its type in the state, in terms of the level of resources employed.